A/N: Toushirou might start acting a little OOC in this from now on, but will see if it can STAY a little. Sorry for the lack of posting, but schools almost over, and I'm graduating too.

Chapter 03

Winters Warm Breath

- Previously -

"For one thing, you're not my taichou, no one is." He gripped Zangetsu. "Secondly, if you don't want people to protect you when you protect others, that's too bad. You guys are in my damn care in this house." With that, he went to the other window and hopped out as he apologized, "sorry Toushirou!"

"Kurosaki!" Toushirou roared furiously. "Stupid human…"

All he could do is watch from the window as the fool went up against the arrancar, it was obvious after a few minutes that it was an imperfect one though. He could sense that Ikkaku and Yumichika were on their way, and notice that Ichigo sensed it too. The captain listened to Ichigo's cursing, and something about this taking only seconds now as he raised his hand to his face. His eyes widened in confusion and fear as to the dark riatsu that the substitute shinigami was summoning, it was like a hollows. Soon, a hollow mask appeared over his face, and there he saw Ichigo's brown understanding eyes become those of a killing hollow. Before the captain could even blink, the imperfect arrancar was destroyed, and Ichigo's mask crumbled onto the street, and he collapsed on his knees as he took a couple breaths.

"Kurosaki!" Toushirou was about to jump out, but Kon grabbed him.
"Stay in here where it's safe." The modified soul demanded.
"The arrancar is gone, there's nothing to be afraid of." He glared.
"Ichigo said to watch you!" Kon complained in annoyance.
His attention turned to Ichigo, seeing Ikkaku and Yumichika at his side, "…"
He looked at the captain, "Ichigo barely gives me commands, he kept me away from death, so I intend to obey those rules." Then added, "keeping you in here was that."
Toushirou looked at the idiotic modified soul that was borrowing Ichigo's body. "Tch."

"Careful Ichigo." Ikkaku called out as he helped him in through the window.
The substitute panted as he came in, "that was a rush I won't regret."
"Ichigo! He didn't want to listen to me!" Kon whined, pointing at Toushirou.
He looked at Kon, "oi, keep it down or you'll wake everyone up."
"Okay," the modified soul piped down immediately and sat on the futon.
"Keh, we come all this way to kick some ass, and you go and kill it!" Ikkaku hissed.
Ichigo laughed tiredly, "well… couldn't let it hit this house ya know?"
"What makes you think it would've come for this one?" Yumichika asked.

"My riatsu, Toushirou's riatsu, Rangiku-san's riatsu? That's almost like ringing a bell to say 'it's dinner time' or something." Ichigo stretched tiredly for the moment.
"You look like shit though, not your clothes, but your face…" Ikkaku pointed out.
"Kurosaki," Toushirou finally spoke, and yet still had a very stern tone.
It even made Ichigo flinch, so he turned to the irritated captain who sat, "yeah?"
"What you said before leaving your room," he glared, "don't repeat it, ever."
Ichigo looked at him blankly a couple of seconds, thinking about what he said before he left, then he decided to ask about it, "uh… which part of it can't I repeat?"
"All of it!" Growled the annoyed taichou before Rangiku bursted into the room.
"Taichou! I felt a huge riatsu and it woke me up!" Stated the almost naked woman.

All four of the male shinigami had their faces turn deep shades of red before yelling in complete fear of seeing her flesh, even though she had garments on—which didn't hide her larger breasts whatsoever. So the highly embarrassed Toushirou yelled at his foolish lieutenant for dropping in on them. "GET OUT OF HERE MATSUMOTO!!"

- Now -

Why was the tenth division captain reading this novel that Rangiku had thrown in his direction? Why was it that substitute shinigami allow her to buy this book to even begin with in the first place. Why was this highly revolting book actually so amusing when it was about two guys against the damn world.

The worst part was that they were lovers.

It would talk about their damn love that they had for each other and how they would express it to one another. Every time the door opened to Ichigo's room, he had to immediately hide the stupid novel from whoever came in. He was caught once with it, but thankfully it was Ichigo's most innocent sister who wanted to come vacuum the floor. That was two weeks ago; a week before he had the cast finally removed from his arm, but it was still weak, so Ichigo was helping him gain the strength.

Ichigo was at school today because it was really screwing up with his daily life—by watching Toushirou every day that was. Isshin and came bursting through the room, yelling and crying about how his grades were falling rapidly because he wasn't going to school. Toushirou could recall on how serious Ichigo was when he said that he, the captain, was more important than the schoolwork. Of course this threw his father off the edge and went crying to his deceased wife… what a weird family this was.

His eyes were glued on the page as it grew closer towards some material that he had never came across before. These two were in a hot spring out in the wilderness, both were touching each other with their 'heated' passion. The book in his hand had him wish that he was a kid so that he wouldn't be able to understand this stuff. He could feel a blush come crossing his cheeks as he read about the smaller guy placing a hand on the bigger ones chest while looking up to him in a pleading manner…

Ichigo knocked on the door, "oi, Hitsugaya, I'm coming in."

The bigger one looked down at the smaller guy with a tender smile before leaning down and kissing his lips. Toushirou's swallowed hesitantly, wondering why the characters never had names in the stupid novel. It was always the 'little one' and the 'big guy' in a simpler term, and the two never even say each others name! Damn him if he were to assume that the 'little one' was himself touching another guy's chest! Being the one who had been taking care of him, for the past eight weeks, Kurosaki Ichigo managed to flash through his mind and he cringed.

"Oh, ya reading a book?" The teen glanced over his shoulder to look.
"Kurosaki!" Toushirou jumped in surprise. "You bastard!"
He frowned at him, "what? I knocked before coming in. Didn't you feel my riatsu?"
Being drawn to the book, he hadn't noticed either, but he mentally sighed to calm down, "that's not the point, you were over my shoulder Kurosaki. It's rude."
"You've been acting a little weird since Rangiku-san gave you that book, what's it about?" He asked curiously; he had no clue what the woman had him buy.
Toushirou looked at him, then the book, "oh," he put it at his side, "it's about death."

The substitute raised an eyebrow, then looked beyond him, "oi, Rangiku-san," this had the captain turn immediately because he thought she was there. So Ichigo took the opportunity and took the book from his hand to read a little, "death, huh?"

"K-Kurosaki!" Toushirou fumed angrily.

He couldn't do nothing to the idiot though, so he waited tensely as he watched him read a few lines and smirk. This made him blush in embarrassment and in frustration to be caught reading such a disgusting thing. But it was easily handed back to him in which he held in confusedly, then looked up at Ichigo to ask. The teen only smiled and said nothing about it, then set his stuff down before going to his wardrobe.

"So, you like that stuff?" He asked curiously.
"It's not like that," Toushirou replied in his stoic tone.
The teen frowned confusedly, "then why are you reading it?"
"I just started to read it, and then continued," he answered truthfully.
"How cute," Ichigo rustled his hair, "you got an addiction."
The captain frowned when looking away and swatted his hand, "it's not like that."
"Alright," he placed on different clothes to get out of the clothing.

He looked up at him, wondering why he wasn't poking fun at him, but his cell phone took his attention. Toushirou gabbed it and flipped it open to see the target and how big it was, it looked like a hollow. The two were the closest to it, so he looked up at Ichigo once more; indicating that the substitute had to go. Ichigo nodded and strangled Kon to grab the pill and took it, turning himself into a shinigami.

Once his jumped on the windowsill, he turned to look at Toushirou, "coming?"
The captain crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow, "I'm allowed this time?"
His eyes rolled at the mocking tone, "if you want, it'll be the first time for you."
"Tch," he took his soul candy and left his gigai, "let's go then."
"Yosh." The two left to find the hollow.

Kon collapsed onto the futon, "I'm so tired…"
The artificial soul looked at him, "…you're making me tired."
"Then laid down and sleep," he closed his eyes and passed out.
"Okay." By misunderstanding, the small one laid with Kon.

"Oi, Hitsugaya! You want to take him down?" Ichigo called out.
"Tch. Are you lazy?" He brought out his zanpakuto.
"Sorry for offering it to you." The teen smirked.

As the hollow came running at Toushirou, he raised the zanpakuto to slice him, but immediately winced and accidentally dropped Hyorinmaru. Hurriedly he tried to grab it as he heard the huge creature coming closer while roaring loudly. He wasn't going to be fast enough, and Ichigo took a flash step to go in front of him, slicing the hollow quickly. The captain knew that the substitute was going to turn around with a cocky smirk, so he waited for it, completely expecting a laugh in the face.

Ichigo turned around to see him, "are you alright?"
This surprised him, but he answered, "I'm fine."
"Let's see your arm." He called out quietly.
Toushirou extended his arm for him, "it's nothing."
"Keh," once he flexed the captain's wrist, the captain winced.
"A minor set back." He immediately declared.

The substitute shinigami looked at him with an disapproving look, but agreed, "yeah. Let's get going so we can wrap your wrist up a bit to support it."

"Kurosaki," he called out while the other was about to leave.
"Hmm?" Ichigo turned to see what he wanted, "what is it?"
"I've been curious about that night you fought last." The captain paused, staring at the ground in thought, "you summoned a mask, and it represented a hollows…"
"Oh, you were watching?" He asked curiously, having the smaller one look at him in confusion. "Here," he summoned the mask, then pulled it off to show him. "See?"
Toushirou reached out and held it cautiously, not knowing what to expect, "how?"
"Some shinigami have two sources of power, some maybe even more," he started in a quiet tone, "mostly, shinigami have just their zanpakuto, and only that."
"You have a hollow source of power?" The captain looked at him seriously.

"In Soul Society, I survive because of him, but I notice after the bounto that I was starting to lose control," Ichigo paused and started to walk off, "I found help within some former taichou and fukutaichou who've placed their hollows into submission."

"It's like receiving you bankai?" Toushirou asked curiously.
"No," he replied in a whisper and stopped in place, "because if you lose to your hollow, you will become a hollow, and you'll only get yourself killed."
The mask crumpled in his hands, "what would've happened if you didn't do this?"
"Then my soul would've been lost to the hollow within me." He demanded, "let's go."

Toushirou silently followed while in thought of having an 'inner' hollow, he had heard that previous captains and lieutenants learned about their own. Perhaps they were the ones who taught Ichigo how to tame his hollow, it reminded him of the big guy in the book. The man would protect the smaller one no matter how much he declines, and so the man would tell him over and over again that he would protect him. The two of them, the big guy and Ichigo always had to be so… dominant, it was rather annoying at some points. Realizing where his thoughts were going, he scoffed and shoved that out of his mind before it could trail any farther.

"Oi, you're falling behind." Ichigo called out from the distance.
He looked forward, he really was falling behind, so he dashed forth in one leap and replied, "now am I still falling behind, Kurosaki?" He scolded.
"Hmm…" he noticed the temper, but shrugged and leaped in his room. "…"
Toushirou shoved him in, "don't just stand there-" he saw the same thing.

His gigai was curled up cozily against Ichigo's body, in which, was being occupied by the modified soul. He twitched at the scene, his cheeks flushing in frustration as he watched his body nuzzle against the other's chest. Jeez, this was just like in the stupid book that Rangiku had him read—the small one sleeping against the other!

"Should we wake them?" Ichigo asked a little nervously.
He snapped out of it, and looked, "I'm not getting in the gigai like that."
"Well… that can be arranged," the substitute mumbled.
Toushirou looked at him, "what does that mean?"

Ichigo came over and carefully picked up the gigai, having the artificial soul turn and nuzzle against his chest now. The captain had to look away from this because he did not want to see the substitute holding his body in his arms. After he settled the gigai on the bed, he kicked Kon to have the pill pop out so he could shove it in the lion. He then entered his body and sat up with a exhausted sigh beneath his breath, then looked up at the white-haired boy. Toushirou finally turned to look to see is he was done, so he sighed and entered his body to sit up on the bed.

"Don't mention this to Matsumoto." Toushirou scowled viscously.
He shrugged, "I won't," then he got up, "I'll see you later."
The captain looked surprised, "where are you going?"
"It doesn't matter, you probably want to finish that book, right?"
"Tch, what makes you think that I would want to finish?" He glared.
Ichigo rustled his hair daringly like earlier, "you're almost done anyway."
Accidentally he blushed, so he smacked his hand away, "stop touching me."
"Still moody, huh?" He shrugged, "I'll be back later. I think Rangiku-san wanted to take you somewhere later too, she asked me for some money earlier."

With that said, the substitute shinigami left the room in his casual clothes and went to where ever it was he was going to. Toushirou sighed in annoyance and glanced to the side at the book, then picked it up to read the back of it. The summary was so simple that he hated it; it said that the two didn't really like each other, and but they eventually grew close, and began to share a bond that grew deep as they traveled. He grunted in irritation when his thoughts placed him into the same situation since he had been in Ichigo's care for so long. Why did his mind keep going towards the idiotic substitute shinigami when it came to the novel?

In the book, the smaller one says that the bigger guy is attractive, and Ichigo wasn't.

Okay, so maybe he's attractive to a few women or something; Toushirou was aware of the crush Inoue Orihime had on him, and it seemed that Kuchiki did as well. So the teen was tall, strong, and protective, but did everyone forget that he was rather stupid or so? Then again, that wasn't all that true, he witnessed him studying for hours to do homework, his focus was so serious. Alright, credit had to be given to him; he was tall, strong, protective, smart, and what… completely insane?

Toushirou growled and scratched his head, "why am I thinking of this?"

He sighed as his lieutenants' voice popped into his head, teasing him on how he thinks Ichigo was attractive. Men were not attractive to other men, it wasn't natural to begin with; women are supposed to attract men and vice versa. Scratching his head again, he remembered how Ichigo had so willingly rustled his hair without a care of what the captain would do to him. Immediately he placed his hand down to stop thinking about that, this was going beyond disgusting and wrong. The captain would tell himself this once—and only once—that Kurosaki Ichigo was not attractive.

The table turned as he remembered seeing his body laying against Ichigo's, what the hell was the artificial soul thinking?! It was obvious that Kon did not force him to do anything because he was sleeping beneath the one who cuddled on top of him. There was a knock on the door so he put the novel under the pillow as the door opened to reveal Rangiku. He gave as usual scowl to her as she grinned so happily as she skipped over to the side of the bed with delight.

"Taichou, let's go somewhere because Ichigo left!" Rangiku cheered.
"I thought you wanted me to 'obey' the rules." He then paused.

Obey.

Was he already falling like the smaller man in the book; becoming obedient and submissive to the larger man? He snapped out of the thought again—this was becoming so ridiculous that it was beginning to make him furious. Thankfully, oh so thankfully, his lieutenant brought him out of his complicated thoughts instantly.

"It's okay, you're better now! It'll be a secret!" Rangiku replied. "Please, oh please?"
The captain sighed and got off the bed, "fine," so long as it distracts his mind now.
"Okay, let's go!" She hurried out of the room. "I'll wait outside the clinic!!"
Toushirou sighed and rubbed his face, 'why am I listening to her…?'

X-

"Mat…su…moto…" growled the angered captain as they stood in front of a onsen.
"What? The human world is different, they'll let you go alone." Rangiku stated.
He glared continuously as they came up to the counter, "are you sure?"
"Of course!" She then looked to the woman as happily as she possibly could, "can we go to the onsen? Him in the men's area and myself in the women's area please?"
The woman glanced at Toushirou, then at Rangiku, "I'm sorry, he's too young to go to the men's area alone and, the kid should be accompanied by he's guardian."
"K-kid?" Toushirou was about to retort, but they were in the human world.

"Can I use this phone?" Rangiku pointed to the clerks phone, and the woman nodded and she dialed a number, "moshi-moshi! Can you come pick up your little brother in the front please? I decided that we should come relax too! Please?" She begged, and they replied. "Thank you!" After hanging up, she smiled, "his brother is coming."

"My what?" Toushirou looked at her in disbelief.
"Oh come on, you know who that is." She frowned.
"Matsumoto…" the captain glared daggers at her.
"Unless… let's bathe together!" Rangiku cheered.
"What?! No!" Jeez, what a perverted woman!

"Hey, you picking on my brother Rangiku-san?" Ichigo called out.

Toushirou glanced at him, only to see him with a towel around his waist. "Kurosaki…"
"Yo," he waved, then looked at her, "so much for keeping an eye on him, thanks…"
"Aw, but you said you were going to an onsen, and it sounded so nice!" She frowned.
Ichigo sighed and waved to the clerk, "it's okay, I'll keep an eye on him."
"Very well," the clerk bowed, allowing Toushirou to accompany him.
"Come on Toushirou," he turned behind the curtain.

The captain glared at Rangiku before following him.

After passing through the curtains, he saw that it was practically empty except for maybe a few men, but not many. He glanced around before seeing Ichigo, so he came over to see what he was doing, but he was just folding his clothes. This was actually a little new to the captain; he had refused to bathe with Rangiku when she offered it to him the last time, and so this was going to be first.

"Hurry and wash up, I'll meet you in the water." Ichigo called out.
"What makes you think I know what I'm doing?" He glared.
His interest raised, "you've never been in an onsen?"
"Not really." The captain replied in annoyance.

"Alright, you take off your clothes, put them in the basket," then he pointed to the cubicles, "then you go get washed up before your go into the hot water," Ichigo saw that Toushirou understood each step that he mentioned to him, "you can wear a towel in the hot water if you want to, I don't know if you're self conscious."

Toushirou nearly snorted and began removing his clothes, "you're rude."
The substitute shrugged, but thought about it, "do you need help washing?"
"Excuse me?" He forced a blush to simmer down before it would appear.
"Oi, don't get defensive," Ichigo retorted with a little surprise at the snap, "I just don't know if you can reach your back, that's all."
His attention went to his wrapped wrist, it was best to not overdo it. "Fine."
"Alright, I guess I'll go get the stuff ready." Ichigo walked off to a cubicle.

The captain sighed in frustration, he knew that Rangiku set him up for this.

'If she's implying that I have interest in Kurosaki, she's wrong.' He thought to himself as he placed his clothes in the basket and wrapped a towel around his waist. 'I have no interest in another man, especially Kurosaki Ichigo.' Is cheeks flushed in obvious frustration as he walked over to the cubicles where the teen waited for him. 'I don't have any interest or attraction to this idiotic substitute shinigami. Damn novel…'

"You seem lost Toushirou." Ichigo called out as he placed a hand on his forehead to check for a fever. "I hope the heat getting to you already, is it?"
"Tch, I'm a taichou," he swatted his hand away and sat on the stool to clean up.
"If you haven't noticed, Hitsugaya taichou, even you need help sometimes."

Damn it, he just had to say it.

When he started to call him by his title, it was only to rub it in his face now, and he hated the mocking appearance of it. The substitute was right though, after all, this was the guy who had been aided him for two long months. They were only thankful that something disastrous didn't occur during that period of time. He didn't even notice that he finished scrubbing himself down, or that Ichigo had taken the sponge.

Ichigo's hand was placed on his upper shoulder while the other hand had the sponge to clean his back. It startled the smaller one of the two when he touched him, but it went unnoticed as Ichigo cleansed his body. He stared at the ground in silence as if it was the best solution for the situation that he was in right now. This was new for him though, to be bathed by another person and be completely aware of it at least. Of course children were bathed by their elders because they couldn't or didn't know how, but he wasn't a child, but it still felt like it during this moment.

Out of nowhere it began to rain, and he looked up, only to see that Ichigo turned on the shower head to a decent temperature. It took it as a sign to rinse himself down and so he rubbed off all the suds from his body in silence. This silence though, it didn't seem like it was helping him, it was more like enticing his thoughts. Toushirou twitched when he felt Ichigo rubbing his back, rinsing the subs from his back in a gentle manner; he hated it. If the water wasn't just right, his body would've prickled with goosebumps at the touches from his strong callused hand. He looked at one of his own hands, noticing how it was more feminine than callused, but it didn't matter.

Ichigo rustled the captain's hair as he asked curiously. "You ready?"
"Sure," he sighed as he began to get up from the stool.
"Be careful though, you might slip." The teen warned.
His eyes rolled, "please Kurosaki," but with one step, he slipped.
Immediately the captain was caught in his arms, "told you."

Toushirou growled in frustration and pulled himself away, "hurry up," he decided to go first so that he could hide his embarrassed, yet again frustrated, little blush.
"Hey, I only warned you through experience," the teen retorted as he followed.
"Somehow that doesn't really surprise me Kurosaki." Replied the uncaring captain.

The two walked outside and placed themselves into the warm water, causing their faces to flush with approval. Ichigo walked over towards the rocks of the created hot spring and leaned against them comfortably. His eyes closed and his head tilted back against the rock wall behind him, allowing himself to relax. Toushirou looked at him with disbelief as to how that spot was any different from the spot where he himself was, but didn't want to ask. He admit that he found the area quite relaxing, it could be a great place to take a break every once in a while if it was possible.

Hearing the teen sigh in a distressed manner, he looked at him, see that he was staring up at the sky in thought, so he asked in his more serious tone, "what is it?"

"Hmm?" Ichigo hummed curiously, slowly bringing his attention down to look at him.
"Don't play stupid with me Kurosaki, you heard me." Glared the irritated captain.
"Oh," he shrugged, "just thinking about the fight ahead, it's obvious at some point."
"Did you come to the onsen just to think about the arrancar?"
"I came to get it off my mind," then he noticed something, "why are you sitting way over there," his hand swayed at him, "it's safer to come over here, hurry, hurry."
Toushirou raised an eyebrow at him, "what's with you Kurosaki?"

A macaque jumped into the spring, startling the captain to no end as he jumped away from the psychotic creature. Wasting no time, he scurried to Ichigo's side to see what had nearly attacked him, and glared at the primate. Ichigo just bursted out with laughter—the reaction of the stoic captain was just too priceless to be ignored or held back. This earned him a menacing glare from the captain who angrily splashed the hot water at his face with frustration. The teen choked on the water as he still continued to laugh—even Toushirou scurrying to his side was unlike him!

Two minutes passed, and he finally calmed down, "their actually friendly here."
"Couldn't you have warned me about them?" Scowled the smaller of the two.
"I tried to," a younger female macaque came to the rock against Ichigo and he gave her his arm to climb on, "their here during the winter more than the summer."
"You come here a lot then." He somewhat declared, receiving a nod.
"I come here once every few months," Ichigo showed the young macaque to him up close, "wanna pet her? She likes humans the most, the manager calls her Ai."

"No thank you," Toushirou replied, feeling his head spin just a little.
"Are you okay?" The teen asked curiously, having the creature do something else.
He turned to him sharply, "why do you always ask that ridiculous question?"
"It's not ridiculous if there's something wrong." Ichigo retorted.
His eyes rolled, "there's nothing wrong, stop trying to baby me."

"Is that what you think I'm doing?" He pondered curiously, but received no reply from the white-haired boy, so he shrugged, "alright then, sorry that I'm concerned about you Hitsugaya taichou." His voice was fully of uncaring emotions, causing the boy to flinch as he got up to get a small rag before sitting elsewhere.

Toushirou mentally huffed in his mind, he knew that he was too defensive over his height and his appearance of looking like a child. The substitute would only pull mild jokes ever so often, but it was something to have them bicker at one another. If anything was to be overestimated, it would be the concern that this teen had for him. His mind recalled all the times he stated that he could do something himself when he really couldn't, so once he started to do something with no prevail, Ichigo silently assisted him—even then he hated that.

"You know, you're kind of like ice," Ichigo spoke out, causing the captain to glare at him, but he smiled as he explained, "but did you know that ice can melt after some time?" He received a confused look from the glare, so the teen looked to the sky, "it's like winter and spring—no matter how cold it is right now, spring will come back."

Toushirou looked at him in surprise, then shook it off with a retort, "where did you read that? One of those Chinese fortune cookies or something?"

Sighing at his stubbornness, he looked at the time to see that they been in it for an hour, so he got up to get out. "It's about time to head to the lounge."
The captain also sighed, but at annoyance towards his own confusion, "fine."
"Get up slowly and walk through the water." Ichigo warned, waiting outside of it.
"Tch, I know Kurosaki, I can read the sign." He pointed to the wall.
His eyes rolled and counted down, 'three… two… one…' and there was a splash.

Ichigo came back into the hot spring and gathered Toushirou in his arms before calling out Rangiku's name because she was on the women's side next to theirs. After telling her to go get dressed, he walked inside so that he could get himself dried off and dressed. His attention went to the unconscious captain would did not heed his warning which caused him to collapse after getting immediately dizzy. It really didn't surprise him, after all, Toushirou said that it was his first time coming to an onsen, so it was alright. He dried on the small one and dressed him up before placing him up on his back securely with his arms wrapped around his neck. Finally after four minutes of waiting for the female shinigami in her gigai, the two made their journey to the Kurosaki clinic where lived as the captain remained silent.

X-

Toushirou stirred awake tiredly and felt something cool on his head—it was an ice pack, he knew it; after spending weeks with this item, he would know it all too well by now. He laid there quietly as he tried to remember what the last thing that had happened before waking up in what seemed to be Kurosaki Ichigo's room, causing him to vaguely remember now. His body hoisted up into a sitting position and looked around to find out that he was all alone in the room which actually surprised him since he was rarely alone when he's asleep. Glancing around, he saw a plate of sliced watermelon for him to snack on, and so he reached for one and ate it as he tried to gain memory of what had last happened to him.

There was a brief knock at the door, and Ichigo walked in, "oh, you're up."
"…" Toushirou looked at him, somehow remember that he was shirtless before.
"You got dizzy at the onsen and fell unconscious," he reminded, "I carried you here."
Again with the 'I carried you' stuff, so the captain sighed, "thank you Kurosaki."
"Don't worry about it," Ichigo smiled, "just eat up while I tell Rangiku-san you're up."